Monday, 30 March 2015

For Christmas 2013 I made present sacks, personalised with Sharpies, to fill with presents. I really wanted to make a similar style bag for Easter, to keep eggs and other treats in for my nephew.
They are simple to make and can be kept for years to come - all you need is a pen and a bag.

Monday, 23 March 2015

If you have any Easter egg hunts planned, or just fancy making something to wrap your

mini eggs in - here is a sew/no-sew bunny bag you might like to try.

What I Used:

Felt

Fabric Glue

Tapestry thread / Needle / Scissors

Paper / Pencil

To start, I created a bunny head template. Fold a piece of paper in half and with a pencil and from the fold, mark half the width you require of your bag. Next, mark your height, measuring from the bottom - this area will form your bunny face, so round the bottom edges and curve them in slightly at the bottom. From the top upwards, you can create an ear, that joins with at least a 2cm line to the fold of the paper. Cut around your template and once unfolded, you should have a made to measure template.

With the felt of your colour choice, fold this in half so that you can create two heads the same size. To make the construction a little easier, I pinned my template in place so that one side lined with the fold, creating one large piece of felt when cut and opened:

To one side of your felt bunny head, add your bunny features. This can be sew, or no sew - using whichever craft supplies you have or like best. You can decorate a full bunny face, or opt to create a mini bunny body, as I did - adding eyes and a nose to the left of the felt:

...leaving room on the bottom right for adding a small white round as a tail:

Next, to create your bag. I chose the quick option of no sew and fabric glue, however; you could also sew your pieces together with a running or blanket stitch.
Outline the bottom half of the inside of one head with fabric glue:

...and then close your felt and match up your lines as neatly as possible, but any excess can be trimmed, so don't worry too much about it:

Whilst this dried and to add a little more detail [but entirely optional], I cut two thin strips of
white felt to mark the ears, fixing in place with more fabric glue:

[don't worry if any glue spills over the edges - it will dry clear]
When tied, if your bunny ears are not long enough for your liking - likely if you have decorated a full bunny face or have a generous number of eggs to put inside, you can adapt your template:

Once constructed, leave your bunny bags to fully dry:

...and then they are ready to be filled and the ears tied to create your bag:

[nail varnish Easter Eggs here and lollipop pallet tray here]
see you next time x

Next, take two of your pallet tray sides and attach a lollipop stick along the bottom of each:

...hold the lollipop stick in place as it dries to ensure that it sits neatly in place at a 90 degree angle against the side.

Next, we can begin gluing the sides together. Taking one of the sides that you didn't add an additional lollipop stick to, glue this in place to one of the sides that you did, insides facing. It should fit neatly above the additional lollipop stick and you can reinforce the join with more glue on the inside:

[I hope that made sense!]

Repeat this with the other two sides and then finally, join both sets together, holding in place

as the glue dries and adding additional glue to reinforce the joins if required [this is also useful

if any sides don't quite fit together and the glue will fill that gap]:

Finally, with the remaining 4 lollipop sticks, I placed these [sort of] evenly across the

remainder of the bottom of the pallet, fixing in place with my hot glue gun and adding extra

from the iside to reinforce:

[if you want to reinforce the strength of the bottom, repeat this stage with lollipop sticks in the

opposite direction, adding more glue at the ends and also where the lollipop sticks cross]

...and your pallet tray is complete.

[you can paint and decorate your tray to fit in with your style and decor]

Use your pallet tray for display or as a storage:

[it was surprisingly strong!]

...or create a smaller version for chocolate [much better idea]:

[made in exactly the same way, just using standard sized lollipop sticks]

Monday, 16 March 2015

Two completely different decorating effects achieved with the same product [and one of my favourite] - nail varnish. I tried a decorative plastic egg makeover last year [glitter involved, of course] but wanted to try some other effects, in particular marbling, which is finding its way into everything at the moment.

For both the decorations, I used pins to help me prevent nail varnish getting
all over my surfaces, hands and soft furnishings, piercing one end:

To create the marble effect, I decided to do the opposite of my usual approach to DIYs and
not attempt to many effects and colours at once and start simply [maybe trying this again with
a few more colours now I feel I know what to do]. I picked my favourite shade of nail varnish
and added a few drops to a half-full bowl of water.
The nail varnish creates a thin film that sits on the top of the water:

Taking one of the eggs, I plunged this in to the water, turning the egg to wrap the
nail varnish around the plastic:

Stand the pin in a small pinch of blu-tac to dry:

I tried the technique a further couple of times, each time creating a slightly different effect:

Once completely dry, you can further create a smooth effect to the nail varnish with a coating of clear varnish or spray craft varnish.

For the second effect [and after a complete change of the light], I tried a feather pattern.
It's a really simple technique, applying short strokes of colour around the egg. It doesn't require
any structure or particular pattern and the more random your strokes, the better. Stand your pins
in blu-tac to help keep the eggs steady. With my first colour choice, I completed a full cover:

...before moving to the next:
...and then continuing this with more colours, just in time for the sun to come out and help
quicken the drying time:

...and those are two quick and easy nail varnish decorating techniques you could use for your
Easter decorating this year [or any small upcycle/decorating project]:

see you next time x

More Easter projects can be found here.
...and if you are a nail varnish craft convert? Try this too!